Animal Paintings to bring you Nature's Beauty and wonder

What a joy it is doing animal paintings! There are so many interesting critters to paint.

Enjoy the wonders of wild, underwater and domestic animals. Every creature, big or small, has a beauty and wonder worth painting and sharing with others.

Colorful oils or watercolors combine the glories of nature with the expression of art.

Two Stripies

This colorful fish painting is not actually an animal painting, but there isn't an underwater page.

While living in Florida I enjoyed doing underwater nature paintings. I love color and had lots of fun doing the colorful Banded Butterfly fish. It's called "Two Stripies".

Did you notice the starfish in the painting?

"Born to Reign".

King of the jungle or the plains of Africa. The lion was "Born to Reign".

Depending on where they live, lions may be colored all the way from a warm tan to brown. This one is painted with a brown body to show off his light-colored mane.

You can paint him, too with an easy tutorial.

animal paintings by carol may

Leafy Sea Dragons are the most amazing gift from God on the coral reef of Australia. There are several different types of leafies. The common type grows to about a foot in length.

They are well camouflaged in the sea grasses where they spend much of their time. They can stay still for hours at a time and also, sway in the currents to mimic the sea grass.

Leafy Portrait

Their leafy appendages help keep them safe from predators. Larger fish don't like to eat them because of all their appendages and the sharp spines on their back.

Leafies can change colors and disguise themselves while they are looking for something to eat. They are peaceful critters that drift around looking for small fish they can suck up with their long snout.

This leafy deserved to have his "Leafy Portrait" painted.

"Spots"

Sometimes I just enjoy the critters for a long time before painting them. That's what happened with this giraffe painting.

God put spots on the giraffe to camouflage them up in the trees. The sun and shadows in the leaves are echoed by the markings on the giraffe.

This watercolor giraffe painting is in the sun and shadows under the trees.

His name is "Spots".

Coral Fish

The tropical sea life that lives in among the coral is amazing. We had the privilege of visiting the John Pennekamp State Park in south Florida.

You can go on glass-bottom boat tours out over the coral reef and see the swarms of beautiful tropical fish. What an amazing sight they are. You get to see large schools of the brightly colored fish with their glistening colors.

It makes you want to do a critter painting of the "Coral Fish". Here is a beautiful Parrot Fish painted in oils with his little buddy following him.

Pelican Resting

When we first moved to Florida, I was amazed by all the large water birds, especially the pelicans. Pelicans were the subject of many of my animal paintings.

Here is a pelican on a post in one of their typical poses. He is a "Resting Pelican".

My husband said "He" is trying to lay an egg! Ha-ha Lots of fun!

Christmas Pony

My sister and I went to a cookout at the local feed store. The food was good, but the best thing was watching all the children running and playing.

The owner's daughter was riding her stick horse named "Bucky"!

Some lucky child will be getting a real pony, not a stick horse but, a live "Christmas Pony".

Koi Challenge

My parents had a tropical fish business with numerous outdoor ponds. The fish would swarm around when we fed them.

"Koi Challenge" shows the golden koi claiming the food for himself while the others are challenging him.

Visit the tutorial of this painting and learn how-to pour watercolors.

Sea Grass

While we were out snorkeling in south Florida, I was amazed to see our native seahorses in among the "Sea Grass".

They were quiet little animals just hanging on the grasses. They lean slightly forward when they swim, looking for something else to hang onto again.

What a treat it was to see them. They were a pale, light color. But for this animal painting, I made them orange to contrast with the green sea-grasses.

Happy Manatee

Manatees make great animal paintings. They are interesting ancient critters. Manatees are actually related to elephants and they are sometimes called Sea Elephants.

They are slow moving critters. If you are in the area where they are resident, watch out for them. Be careful and don't hit them with your boat propellers.

They are Florida's state marine animal and they are protected.

Here is a “Happy Manatee” enjoying her baby.

Easy Freedom

This lively, colorful horse painting was painted for a lady that was having a hard time. The painting was done to encourage her that she was on her way to "Easy Freedom".

This sprightly horse looks like he is having fun prancing through the flowers.

You can get prints of any of my paintings.

Click on an image to see the options.

Hummer's Refuge

One day I saw a Prickly Pear Cactus with a big cavity in one of the large leaves. My artist mind got to running and I thought that would be a perfect place for a hummingbird to nest.

Predators would have a hard time getting past all the thorns on the cactus. It was a great place for a "Hummer's Refuge".

Animal paintings, even bird paintings are fun!